The Alcatraz Escape Case
Three men vanished into San Francisco Bay, and no one has ever proven whether they lived or died.
Briefing
On the night of 11 June 1962, three inmates slipped out of their Alcatraz cells, climbed to the roof and launched a homemade raft into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay. They had spent months carving through vent covers, building a hidden workshop, and leaving painted plaster heads in their beds to fool the guards. Debris linked to the men turned up in the days after, but the men themselves never did. Investigators, and later researchers, have spent decades arguing over what happened to them.
What happened to the three men who escaped Alcatraz in 1962?
Evidence board
- E1June 1962, San Francisco Bay
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E21979, FBI case closed
FBI's Case For Drowning
The FBI concluded the men had not survived, citing strong currents and frigid water, no theft matching their planned escape route, no substantiated outside help, and 17 years without credible evidence they were alive.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation - E32014, American Geophysical Union
The tide model
In 2014 researchers modeled the bay's currents: at about 10 p.m. the outgoing tide would have pushed the raft west toward the Golden Gate Bridge, not north toward Angel Island, while a launch at about 11:30 p.m. would have landed the men near the bridge. The model shows survival was possible, not that it happened.
Source: American Institute of Physics (Inside Science) - E42013, letter to San Francisco police
Sealed. Question a witness to open it.
- E52026, U.S. Marshals Service listing
Still Listed As Wanted
The Marshals Service website still lists all three men as wanted on warrants dated 11 June 1962, and in 2022 it released updated renderings of how they might look in old age.
Source: ABC7 San Francisco - E611 June 1962, Alcatraz
How They Got Out
The men drilled through vent covers with a motor-driven drill, worked in a hidden rooftop workshop to build a raft and life preservers from raincoats, and left painted plaster dummy heads in their beds to fool the guards.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation - E71975, alleged photograph
Photograph From Brazil
The Anglin family produced a photograph said to show the brothers alive in Brazil in 1975, and an analyst the family hired vouched for it, but the FBI did not accept it as proof.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation - E82022, public accounts
No Set End Date
Online accounts often claim the Marshals Service has set a date to stop searching for the men, but none of the FBI or Marshals Service material describing the case gives one.
Source: ABC7 San Francisco
Witnesses
A 1962 search boat operator (composite)
Composite characterBay boat operator asked by the FBI to watch for debris
I was one of the boat operators the FBI asked to watch the bay after the three men vanished.
A retired federal case researcher (composite)
Composite characterWorked the escape file for the government, including later leads
I spent years on the paperwork of this case, right up through the letter that surfaced decades later.